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Lac Ste. Anne County moves to grab province and AFSC's attention regarding agricultural disaster

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During a regular council meeting last Thursday, Lac Ste. Anne council moved a number of motions designed to get the attention of the province and AFSC [Agriculture Financial Services Corporation] regarding the dire situation around the state of agriculture in the County.

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Aren Skogstad, agriculture services manager for LSAC started off with a request to send a letter to the AFSC regarding their town hall meetings being held nowhere near the County.

“Lac Ste. Anne County recognizes the need for these meetings and believes they are an integral part of eliminating any miscommunication between AFSC and our farmers. These meetings are an importation step in ensuring our farmers get the support they deserve. Our concern is with the insufficient lead time to which the meetings were advertised as well as that NONE of the meetings being hosted by AFSC are within reasonable proximity to Lac Ste. Anne County,” said Skogstad in his request for decision [RFD] to council.

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Skogstad’s RFD also touched on the fact the County has suffered through another successive year of poor cropping conditions in 2019. The elevated volume and frequency of precipitation created more than difficult conditions throughout the growing season.

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As a result, a great deal of unharvested crop remains in field within the municipality, and the crops that were harvested was done so in poor or degraded condition.

“The picture that the AFSC is presenting is significantly less severe than what is actually out there. This is unprecedented in terms of volume of crop remaining out,” said Skogstad during the council meeting.

Skogstad also said the downturn in the oil and gas sector doesn’t help matters for the County.

“We are already seeing the hurt within our municipality. A lot of municipalities rely on the oil and gas sector along with agriculture to keep the doors open on a retail level. Small town Alberta is really hurting right now. This is something that needs to be brought to everyone’s attention.”

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Council passed three motions on the topic of the agriculture disaster. One was pointed at sending a letter to AFSC regarding the townhall meetings and their proximity to Lac Ste. Anne. Another was directed at getting on the Tax Deferral Index as they have been left off of it again and the last was to set up meetings with AFSC and appropriate collectives to sort these issues out and have their voices be heard.

“We know that we can’t ask for dollars, they just aren’t going to give any. They told us at the convention last week that we could borrow 2.4 per cent. Maybe low-income operating loans for individuals in dire straits through AFSC might be something to look at. I know we can’t borrow ourselves out of debt. In order to survive, agriculture producers have to have something,” said Coun. Lloyd Giebelhaus.

jstricker@postmedia.com

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